Tom Scott, the organization’s executive director, said California’s roads have been “embarrassingly neglected for decades” while billions of taxpayer dollars have been siphoned away from needed road repairs and transportation projects.

And the new bill, he said, was rushed to the Assembly floor without receiving a single committee vote in that house.

“We also cannot ignore how almost exactly one year ago, the same politics in Sacramento rushed the $15 minimum wage hike through the legislature in one week,” Scott said. “However, the 50-cent-per-hour pay bump minimum wage workers got with SB 3 last year will instantly be erased by the tax increases in SB 1. And next year they’re supposed to be getting another 50 cents. Well, that’s gone too.”

Scott said working families and low-wage workers will be hit the hardest when they are forced to pay more for gasoline, goods and services.

The Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017, better known as Senate Bill 1, was approved by the California state Legislature late Thursday. It will invest $52.4 billion over the next decade to fix damaged and aging roads, freeways and bridges in communities across California and put more dollars toward transit and safety.

Californians will be hit on a number of fronts. The measure will boost the state’s gasoline excise tax by 12 cents to 30 cents a gallon with additional adjustments for inflation. The diesel tax will jump 20 cents to 36 cents a gallon and motorists will also pay an additional fee on their vehicles.

Residents whose cars are valued at $5,000 or less will pay $25 a year and others with vehicles worth $60,000 or more will pay $175 a year. Owners of zero-emission cars will pay a fee of $100 a year.

SB1’s gas price hikes are certainly not welcome, but they may be the tip of the iceberg. The state’s Legislative Analyst Office said California’s cap-and-trade program will raise gas prices by an estimated 63 cents per gallon in 2021 and 73 cents per gallon in 2031.

SB1 is set to be signed by Gov. Jerry Brown. The fuel tax hikes will go into effect in November and the vehicle license fee will kick in Jan. 1.

“They took six days to push this through,” Scott said. “The average business owner on the street had no idea this was coming. Six days to push through a $52 billion bill — and there’s no sunset on this tax. Working families are going to end up paying $300 to $600 more a year.”

“This is going to hurt not only small businesses but employees as well,” he said. “We have two delivery trucks that are diesel and we do 20 to 30 deliveries a week. I haven’t sat down and really thought about how much more this will cost us … I don’t think I want to know.”

Carlos Soto, who owns My Local Flower Shop in Reseda, will also be faced with higher costs. But he has a plan.

“We do about 100 deliveries a week and we go all throughout L.A. County,” he said. “I’m going to have to reduce my delivery area and also let some of my employees go. This is absolutely unbelievable. I know we have more roads and cars on the streets, but all these years the money that was collected for gas taxes, car taxes and all of the other taxes has gone somewhere else.”

McKnight said 90 percent of his organization’s membership — most of which employ five to 10 workers — didn’t support the new taxes.

“California’s crumbling transportation network has been faced with physical and financial challenges for too long,” chamber President and CEO Donna Duperron said in a statement posted on Gov. Brown’s website. “Torrance businesses require — and deserve — an efficient transportation system to succeed and prosper in today’s economy.”

“This is a great return on investment because for every one dollar spent on roads, highway and bridge improvements, the result is a $5.20 benefit to Californians in lower car repairs, lower road maintenance costs, better fuel consumption and improved road safety,” Nissen said.

McKnight said the increases are going to be especially rough on working Californians.

“Think about it,” he said. “No one — or least very few people — live right around the corner from where they work. Most people commute at least 20 miles a day or more. This will be a real burden on them.”

Kevin Smith handles business news and editing for the Southern California News Group, which includes 11 newspapers, websites and social media channels. He covers everything from employment, technology and housing to retail, corporate mergers and business-based apps. Kevin often writes stories that highlight the local impact of trends occurring nationwide. And the focus is always to shed light on why those issues matter to readers in Southern California.